10-29-12

I´ve filled an entire journal so far in my mish.... haha. I love writing in my journal.

I need to stop studing in english... I´ve been turnign to my comp and talking really fast in english to her all of the sudden and then quickly realizing that it was in english.... haha... yikes. my mind is still in frikin english. (quick note: everyone says frik and friking in spanish, hilare to me)

I´m like obsesded with brusha and flossing my teeth here.... they´ve never been so happy, guess that´s a good thing, cause I won´t be headed to a dentist any time soon.

I had a freak out moment yesterday with my comp... I just kinda freaked out about never being able to talk to anyone like I want to! like I´m stuckin a dreamworld where I can´t talk. like my mouth is sewn shut. 

My personal lesson on sunday this week was that it´s always better than we think. My comp and I have been a little downhearted because we have quite a few fechas and no progressing investigators cause they´re not going to church! We also worked really hard at inviting people to classes ingles this week and still... nadie. but on Sunday, we had one 11 year old investigator come to church and then to our surprise another investigator with 2 kids walked in after the 1st talk. As I looked around I realized how many recent/and non recent converts there were. I imagined the chapel without those people and my imagination was pretty empty. I´m so grateful for the people that we do have. I am grateful for those 2 investigators that came to church. sometimes it feels like we´re not doing anything but dying in the heat, but then the lord blesses me with moments of meditation like this, and then I see.

Hermana Schumacher

So many mish! 10-22-12

So many mish! It's so weird, and it´s so weird that these little boys are going on their mish at the same time as me... I feel so old.... haha

this week we had the most rain than ever! some days it never stopped! what´s nice is it´s cool. one day my comp left my umbrella in my bag and we just walked for an hour in the rain... it was pretty amazing. I love the rain soooooo much. I´m getting used to the heat. I don´t feel sticky. I´m working on my mish tan including my wacky tan lines on my feet... yikes!

right now I´m reading my comps english material.. it´s so interesting. I´m learning a ton about spanish from it and how to teach english to spanish speakers (i´d love to do that after my mish like esl, or tsol or what ever it´s called.) and about my comp and i´s communication issues haha. it´s way interesting.

okay, no mucho tiempo.... yikes! I have more to say! my blog is mucho mejor! Thank you blog slave! haha love you mom!

I miss warm and hot showers. so much. If you could send one through the mail, please do...

the more i study spanish the worse I realize I am at speaking it.... yikes, but isn´t that life? haha I can´t speak english anymore either! so much for communication in my life.... blah!

gotta go! I send much love and I have like 10 letters leaving in the next week for all you peoples! love you! and if you haven´t sent me a letter... I don´t have your address to write you and tell you I want to talk to you!!!! so write me!

con mucho amor, Hna Zapatera

Panama Mission Shipping

Straight from the horses mouth:

Brothers and Sisters,

Good afternoon my name is Elder Hawks and I´m in charge of receiving the mail for your sons and daughters here in the mission. It´s amazing to see how much love and support you all offer through letters and packages and I know that it helps to receive such letters and packages from home.

With the Holiday Season coming I know that we are going to see an influx of mail and it´s an exciting time for all of us. However, I need to ask a favor from all of you that you DO NOT send any type of food to your sons and daughters through packages. Here in Panamá there is a law that indicates the illegality of sending such things and upon arriving to Panamá any package that has food is confiscated and we are unable to claim it and send it to your kids.

Address for sending packages:

Your missionary’s name

Misión Panamá

Carrasquilla Entrega General AP 0834

Panamá, Republica de Panamá

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE help us out here by not sending things in packages because it would be sad to never receive your packages. I appreciate you support and cooperation.

Sincerely

Elder Andrew Hawks

Secretario General

Mision Panama

Sasha's Mom is in trouble..... 10-15-12

Sasha says "so why aren't there posts on my blog? :( sad day... since September..."


Mom says "So as Sasha's personal secretary, I take full responsibility and profusely apologize for abandoning my duties as keeper of The Blog. ;P Enjoy this multitude of new mission experiences as only Sasha can tell them. Fortunately there are no dead or soon to be dead, cute kittens involved."

Assimilation 10-15-12

okay, I'm way lazy right now... and plus, my mother isn't posting my letters! sad day? I think so.... okay, so now I have 20 minutes.

This is my letter to my pres this week:

This week we visited with a woman who we haven't seen for many weeks. we only just met her the time before entnces, this week we actually taught a lesson on the plan of salvation. the last time we learned that her husband has left her and doesn't want to get back together but she does. they have a beautiful home and a 4 year old boy. when we knocked on her door the first day, it was the first time in my mish that I felt a prompting from the Spirit to knock on a door. when we did, Hermana Itsel cried during our time with her. afterwards, we were like... wow. the spirit was tan fuerte. this week after we taught about the first half of the plan of salvation including the life and example of the Savior, my companion felt VERY strongly that she should ask for baptism. she followed that prompting without looking back and our investigator replied without hesitation si! and to a fecha (deadline) all she wanted to ask was what time. as my comp and i left her home. we stopped in the street and offered our gratitude and astonishment at the milagros in our day and especially with this hermana to our Father in Heaven. the Spirit is here in this work! there's no doubt about it. may i just add that this night of milagros was proceeded with a really cruddy day... both my comp and i were emotionally and physically drained. it just goes to show that the Lord really can lighten our load in the end if we only trust in him.

we visited the temple yesterday with a couple. the wife is menos active and her husband isn't a member and they need to get married. needless to say... the temple was the most perfect plan ever for them. I called my mish pres and told him I was hoping for a miracle if he wasn't busy and he wasn't! so he came and picked us up at albrook (the big mall/bus terminal in Panama City, (I'm there right now) and we headed to the temple. pres is great. we talked about the temple and he basically just asks my comp and I questions the whole time and we teach by answering them. the spirit was so strong last night. I personally needed to visit the temple grounds. it's so peaceful and especially on Sunday because there's no one there.

yesterday a member in the ward filled a CD with like almost 70 songs of salsa music .. love it!!! don't worry, we'll be good. haha. maybe just for dancing in morning exercises haha. my comp about died when he gave it to us. haha love it. she loves loves loves dancing. my little sexy comp latina. we're good friends. she says that I know her life more than any other mish in the mish. which is saying something cause she has some good friends here. i think it's weird for her that I ask so many questions to get to know her... i don't know how to explain that. to me information and stories about someone's life are way important, to her it's more about quality time and laughing and showing you care on your face rather than words. I'm learning a lot from her. I hope to stay in touch with her after my mish, with Facebook, that's pretty easy. she heads home in Feb prolly. I've taught her some new things in English. she's working on reading the Book of Mormon in English. and she laughs at me when I say things like what the heck! whatever, fatty fat fatty, and especially yikes, yuck, and eww. hahaha love it.

Spanish is good. I think I finally feel like a mish. haha my coninera said that I look like a mish now. but I'm not sure if that's good or bad... I'm pretty sure that means I like a hot sweaty gringa that's more fat now than when she arrived and she doesn't seem to care about what see wears anymore or if her hair is nasty. yeah, I'm not sure yet if that's what she meant.

Okay, love you all!! I hope my mom posts this!!! haha (hint hint! haha)

I need my jean cut off shorts sooooo bad! but I'm looking for some here. need music. need pics. need pics of Cami's wedding .. tell her that.,.. seriously. I want pics from everyone.

ps. I dance like a gringa. like sooooo bad. I'm going to come back latina. bronceada, able to move my body, speak Spanish, and whatever else... prolly not shorter though... haha

love love love from panama! woot woot panama!

Missionary Life 10-8-12

Ask the mish, they can help you! 10-8-12

Conference was way amazing right? haha. Sat
morning one of our investigators was with us. He´s 20 years old and
can never understand me. I think it´s because he´s so used to the
terrible Panamanian language here haha. cause everyone else can
understand me fine... haha the kids and jovenes are the hardest to
understand here... anyway, so sat morn was like the best session for
him with elder nelson´s talk to mish and non members and
investigators. to every question... ask the mish, they can help you.
hahaha I was like, great! more work, thanks elder Nelson! haha IT
was a great talk. like a mish discussion practically. loved it.

And about missionary ages: Jakob and I always talked about going on our mishes together! haha. tell him to put his papers in asap. his date after school and wait on
the Lord. Seriously, so freaking exciting. all of us mish were
together watching in English and we all freaked! There´s going to be
way more sister mish. I wonder if I would have went at 19...? Tell
Jakob, that the sooner the better because the faster we can be sealed
to you guys after he gets back!!! haha

we went to the stake center and watched all the sessions. my comp`on
fri said that we couldn´t go if we didn´t have invest to go with us,
and I kinda freaked out saying that there´s no way that the mission
would impede my blessing of listening to the PROFETA! hello! this is
our message as mish, the restoration and revelation! haha, so I asked
after the 1st session if we could go to all of them, and they looked
at me funny like, duh,.... of course you can. so, we did. loved it.
I watched it all in english and with hermana kistner too. haha. It´s
funny how our mish is so intertwined with the call in puerto rico to
being comps to being in the same area our first change. we see each
other every week.
I don´t think I need a cd player anymore. an hermana promised me hers
when she leave for home in nov! craziness. she´s way cool. she´s
from tonga/california. haha. It´s great to be able to talk to someone
who understands all my feelings right now and has lived throu the mish
and has advice and speaks english and struggled and loved it. She and
her comp are a little rebelous I think... but the whole mish is sorta
like that. I´m trying to figure out the balance here in the mish of
mish white handbook rules and mish chillness. not too sure yet....

We didn´t have changes, like I thought. so I´ll be with my comp
another change. love her. cultural differences are hard, and I need
to learn to let things go or keep my mouth shut at times... hahaha.
it´s all good. love her to death though., wouldn´t want anyone else
for mi madre. (I´m her hija, she´s my mother. I was"born" into the
mish and when your getting ready to go home they call it "dying" ahah
spanish mish language...)

To my friends and family: if you send me a letter, send me pics!
Alexis sent me pictures and it awakened a desire for more `pictures!
it´s easier than sending me something else, and I don´t really need
anything anyway. PICTURES!!! I love fotos!!

So my umbrella that is pretty heavy duty, it hasn´t died yet, but it
rains so hard that my hair is soaked even if I use my umbrella. so I
look like a wet dog all day. It´s wonderful. once again.... good bye
beauty, es la mision! haha

Comps and the Big City

First Baptism and Cute Nina 10-1-12

Luis his baptism was this week. pretty interesting since they had to carry him into the water and set him on a stool. He´´s going to be an amazing member. we´ve been teaching him this whole change and he had to stop drinking coffee and for medical resons he can´t stop smoking says his dr.... first bap for me! and this month our mish sky rocketed in the number of baps! goal!

Cutest childeren ever live here.

Love this family. the older son isn´t in the pic. Hna Gina has the best food in all of Panama, no joke. rice with coconut, and everything else! YUM

LOOOOOONNNG Week! 10-1-12

We have cambios (transfers) this week. meaning week number 6. My comp and I will be together one more change, even though my comp asked the pres to be transferred. She´s burnt out here and for me, I think it´s holding me back a little. We both don´t like to make decisions. I like a packed set schedule, not one where I  have to decide what to do, cause what I want to do in the moment is sleep. haha. but we´ll see how it goes. anyway, I should probably tell you about my week.

This was a LOOOOOONNNG week. But it ended with a bang. A good bang, not like a gun shot, bad bang... haha.

We didn´t study once this week, which kills me... I´m way more tired and my Spanish seriously suffers throughout the day. but every morning we somehow had something we had to do or I was sick.

Domingo: Crazy personal experience with a ward member, drains my comp and I

Lunes: P'day but not p'day... solo in the morning. the rest of the day we worked.

Martes: p'day for real. went to Panama viejo. pretty, hot, tired, fun vines to swing on with my district

Miercoles: District meeting, cause p'day was on tue and not mon

Jueves: Sick, like sick sick. it sucked. all night. on this day I was suppose to go to Panama in the morning at 4am but wed night at about 10:45 I started running a fever and it was up and down and up and down all night. I finally fell asleep at about 3am and woke up LATE for immagrations at 6am and then did nothing all day cause, I felt like I was going to fall down to the ground with dizziness and weakness.

Viernes: my comp said that the Zone leader said to go to immagrations this morning. so up at 4 am and out the door.. AND..... no one was there... we call the mish office... no, not today... great.... we got up way early, when I need to rest, we paid for a bus to Panama and now we´re just going to turn around and go home.... yeah, okay, that´s fine, whatevs.

Sabado: Baptism. no water in the font. late. I´m feeling like crud. there aren´t any members there cause the branch temple trip is in a few hours. there´s a seminary grad party going on that is huge and sooooo loud during the bap. yeah, not ideal. the man we bap is in a wheelchair. Pres Ward is here witnessing the craziness. it was a great bap. haha like really great. the Spirit was soooo strong.

Domingo: The day of rest. I finally feel GREAT! todo el dia! it was wonderful )

Side Notes: The toes are good. menos bug bites. I´m tan already. random info: here it gets dark at 7 every day. never changes. at about 6 pm it starts and by 7 it´s pitch dark. it kinda sucked in the beginning, but I´m used to it now. and I´m not looking forward to summer. it´s winter right now and I´m a sweaty mess. I love the rain... I don´t want a dry season.... cry...